Frontline
April 1998
Campaign

‘All citizens who believe in secularism should support your campaign’

Gurudas Kamat
Congress MP

I strongly feel that your journal has raised a very valid issue. All citizens who believe in a secular society should voluntarily come forward to support the campaign you have begun. I wholeheartedly support it as I have done in the past.

On the question of special legislation to the victims of communal riots, I am fully in favour of payment of immediate compensation to every victim of communal and caste caste conflict. Equally well, I fully support strict action against any police official, whatever his rank, who has been indicted by the findings of an official judicial commission. Government should not hesitate or ignore to take prompt, punitive measures to correct serious lapses by the administration and the dereliction of duty by men in uniform.

Hearings before the Gundewar Commission, appointed to investigate the police firing against Dalits (when 11 persons were killed due to police firing) at Ramabai Nagar in Ghatkopar (north-east), Mumbai, is in progress.The report is expected to be submitted in a couple of months. I have already publicly stated that I will go on a hunger strike if the report is not released to the public and corrective action recommended taken immediately.
On March 28, the night Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee won the confidence motion in the Lok Sabha, I submitted a memorandum to him at his residence as a Member of Parliament from Mumbai. I have demanded immediate release of the Srikrishna Commission report in the interests of justice, crucial to any functioning democracy.

It is clear from the posturing of the SS-BJP government that they are adopting dilatory tactics, taking cover of the six months’ period granted to any government to formulate the Action Taken Report (ATR). They are trying to say that for these six months that they need to for action on the recommendations of the Judge, the report will not be released. There is nothing in law to substantiate this position, this amounts to nothing but a suppression of the report. The Srikrishna report must be released now even if action on recommendations made is taken later. The very fact that they are not releasing the report is evidence that SS bigwigs are seriously implicated.


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